Letters -- Published Feb. 24, 2009

Tuesday

Feb 24, 2009 at 12:01 AM

California is experiencing a severe and far-reaching water shortage. Camanche Reservoir is less than 33 percent full. We have received only half our average rainfall this year. It will take 25 years for the little rain falling today to reach the water table from which we derive most of our water. As a consequence of all this, metered water is coming to town.

California is experiencing a severe and far-reaching water shortage. Camanche Reservoir is less than 33 percent full. We have received only half our average rainfall this year. It will take 25 years for the little rain falling today to reach the water table from which we derive most of our water. As a consequence of all this, metered water is coming to town.

Metering has been mandated (but not funded) by the state with specific dates set for compliance. Homes built after 1992 are required to be metered by 2011. Older homes have until 2025 to comply, though the city of Lodi is hoping to speed up the process.

Half of our water goes for outdoor uses: lawns, palm trees and other landscapers' favorites are intensive water users, as are many of the street shrubs and hedges in town. Expanses of fertilized, irrigated and mowed turf surround churches, businesses, nursing homes, housing complexes and public buildings. We need to be working now to reduce outdoor water use to be ready for the realities of paying for this valuable commodity.

Reducing the area of real estate dedicated to lawns alone would be a huge step. Careful monitoring of timed water systems would be another. Wise choices of plants, locations, watering systems and mulching can help to prepare us for a future when quantity and quality of water will most certainly be limited.

We can work together to save water, save money and improve diversity of habitats for wildlife. A major water conservation effort must come from the grass roots - ourselves. Get involved. Check your local nursery for water-saving and river-friendly landscaping ideas. Start today to save tomorrow. Lose the lawn and replace it with drought-tolerant plants (not concrete). When metering comes to town, you'll be glad you did.

Melissa HoltonWoodbridge

To the misinformed men who wrote letters supporting the destruction and genocide of Gaza by the Israeli forces, check your facts. This is one time the world condemns Israeli actions. Israel used Howitzers, tanks, ships, F-16 jet bombers, phosphorous shells and ground troops.

Hamas fired back or first with homemade rockets or missiles supplied by outside sources. One thousand three hundred Palestinians have died, and there are countless injured men, women and children. Mostly all innocent civilians.

On the other hand, 13 Israelis have died, including 10 soldiers. There is something wrong with this picture. Gaza was almost destroyed, leaving many homeless. Which includes generations living in camps, which can be called by another name. The hate grows stronger.

Gil Limon EstradaStockton

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Hamas Palestinian soldiers launch artillery missiles into Israel and Israel retaliates. Israel has been civil and decent to its Arab Muslim neighbors. If the world wants peace between them, then Israel should get all of the League of Nations Mandate. That includes Israel itself, Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan with the Arab Muslims moved out to Syria, Iraq, Arabia and Egypt. That will provide Israel with a defendable territory, with adequate natural resources to provide for all the Jews on Earth if they choose to live there and it matches their territory attained under King David.

Meanwhile, Lebanon should be cleared of Arab Muslims and be left to the Arab Christians where they can live in peace and free of persecution.

Richard SlezakStockton

If you would like to take a poke at agriculture, just grab a number and stand in line.

Michael Fitzgerald's column ("Collection turns unflinching eye on underbelly of Valley ag," Feb. 8, The Record) has given photographer Barron Bixler a forum to point out the ugly side (pictures from the article) of ag in our Valley.

Yes, we farmers have been at it again. Scattering used tires about the landscape, lining our ditches with rip rap, gouging the land with massive pieces of equipment and filling tanks with God knows what. What other dirty little secrets could we farmers be hiding? Here's one. I confess I have an old refrigerator along with four bags of used diapers in my field.

Where do people such as Bixler come from? San Francisco perhaps. An even better question is where could someone as ignorant as Bixler find space in a newspaper to showcase that ignorance? The answer: Let Mikey do it. That's it, two mindless people discovering dirty little secrets about ag that in truth exist only in their dirty little minds.

Joe LombardiStockton

Mary Kerlin donated 15 acres of land in 1986 to the people of Valley Springs. Since she had a church and school in mind, she deeded the land to the Catholic Diocese of Stockton, thinking they would be appropriate to develop it.

After 23 years and several attempts to start a fundraiser, Mary Kerlin herself said, "Tell me what you need, and I will write the checks." So far it has been nothing but stonewalling.

Someone asked how the church was going to pay for the awards for pedophile priests, $1 billion in Southern California, several million in Stockton. I don't know how they got the other lands, but I do know how they got it in Valley Springs.

Arnold BarronValley Springs

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